i Terumi watched Gengetsu Hozuki's face flicker between disbelief and wild elation, and she allowed herself a faint, knowing smile. It wasn't pride for pride's sake - after everything Kirigakure had endured, it felt like the village had finally reached the point where reality itself couldn't keep up.
"Yes," she said evenly. "Mizukage-sama truly is Kirigakure's savior."
Gengetsu's eyes sharpened at once. "I can understand most of it… but Hashirama's cells? How did he even obtain sothing like that?!"
Hoshigaki Kisa gave a low, rasping chuckle, his grin curling with teeth. "Hashirama's cells? Don't get hung up on that."
His gaze cut through the steam and dust like a blade.
"Right now, even Konoha is already under Kirigakure's control."
"What?!" Gengetsu blurted, genuinely rattled.
He knew Kirigakure had beco an unmatched force - people across the shinobi world said it openly now, calling the Mist the strongest power alive. But to fully take Konoha, the legendary village that had produced monsters like Senju Hashirama and Senju Tobirama, a place that had survived countless wars on sheer legacy and blood?
That wasn't simply difficult. From Gengetsu's era, it would have sounded like a drunken fantasy.
Even during the First Shinobi World War, Kirigakure had only dared to join with the other Great Villages to pressure Konoha as a united force, hoping to carve off profit and concessions. Total domination - subjugation - had never been more than a ridiculous daydream.
And yet Chiba had turned that daydream into fact.
i nodded, unhurried, as if stating the weather. "It's true. Lord Chiba launched a lightning strike on Konoha and seized complete control. He killed Sandai Hokage Hiruzen Sarutobi, then brought Senju Tsunade - Shodai Hokage's granddaughter - into our fold and appointed her as Godai Hokage. Konoha is no longer an equal power. It's effectively part of Kirigakure now."
Her eyes remained steady as she continued, each line adding another weight onto Gengetsu's stunned silence.
"It doesn't end there. Sunagakure, Iwagakure, and Kumogakure have also submitted to Kirigakure."
"And the smaller villages - Takigakure, Agakure, Otogakure, Kusagakure, and others - have beco our vassals completely."
Gengetsu froze, eyes wide, mouth slightly open. For a mont he looked like a man trying to wake up from a dream that refused to release him. Then the shock finally broke, spilling into a laughter so loud it felt like it could shake the sky.
"Hahahahaha… hahahahahaha!!!"
"Chiba… Chiba!" he roared, half incredulous, half exhilarated. "To think you'd lead Kirigakure to this extent…!"
His expression softened, a strange tenderness slipping into the pride. "Good. Too good. If that's where my village has arrived… then even if I die again, I can finally rest with no regrets."
A voice snapped through the mont before it could settle into sentint.
Hozuki Mangetsu shouted from the front line, urgency sharpened into anger. "Mizukage-sama is obviously a godlike figure - but now is not the ti to chat!!!"
Gengetsu, i, and Kisa turned at once to follow his gaze.
Jōki Boi ("Steaming Danger Tyranny") had reached its peak again.
The Steam Imp clone had heated to the limit, swelling grotesquely - its childlike body ballooning into a massive, bloated shape, like a living bomb about to burst. Heat rippled off it in visible waves; steam hissed violently along its surface, and the air itself seed to warp around it.
Under Mangetsu's earlier command, Kirigakure's forces had already pulled back, retreating far enough to avoid being caught in the blast.
Gengetsu smiled, almost peaceful. "I'm satisfied," he said, as though the battlefield around him wasn't chaos but closure. "Only one thing remains - waiting for you to seal ."
He lifted his chin, grin widening. "Do your best!"
The instant he finished speaking -
BOOM - !!!!!
The explosion carved a crater into the earth so deep it looked like the ground had been torn open. A scorching shockwave blasted outward - less a gust of wind than a hamr of heat - striking everything in its path with suffocating force.
Mangetsu threw up Hirakarei, forcing chakra into a defensive shield. The barrier held for a breath - then the impact still launched him like debris. He slamd into the ground hard, skidding, coughing as blood ran from the corner of his mouth.
The one relief was that the rest of Kirigakure's shinobi had already withdrawn. There were no screams of mass casualties - only the roar of the blast fading into steam.
Mangetsu forced himself up, grimacing. "As expected of Nidai Mizukage-sama…" he muttered. "That power is beyond comprehension."
i's voice snapped with concern. "Mangetsu! Are you alright?!"
"I'm fine," he said, wiping at his mouth, "but…"
He looked upward.
The sky had beco a veil of steam, but it rose quickly, cooled, and condensed. Within monts, it hardened - hail began to fall, tapping armor and earth with sharp, cold strikes.
And under that drop in temperature, the Steam Imp clone shrank rapidly, its swollen form tightening and compressing until it returned to its childlike shape once more - resetting, preparing to begin the cycle again.
i's expression tightened. It's going to keep exploding…
Then a violent hum cut across the battlefield.
A Kagutsuchi-enhanced arrow shot forward - black, razor-straight - piercing the Steam Imp clone cleanly.
The clone didn't collapse. Piercing alone wasn't enough. Its outer shell, ford from oil, wasn't "killed" by a hole.
But the next instant, Amaterasu ignited.
Black flas clung to the oil like a curse, burning with rciless hunger. The outer layer began to be consud, oil turning to nothing under inextinguishable fire - while the water inside heated violently, pressure spiking toward another detonation.
i snapped her gaze to Sasuke, alarm flashing. "Sasuke! If you do that, won't it make it explode even faster?!"
Sasuke's eyes stayed cold, calculating. "Yes," he answered without denial. "But we don't need to stop it from exploding."
His voice lowered, hard with certainty. "We just have to survive this one."
i inhaled once. Then she nodded. "Fine."
She surged forward, chakra swelling like a tide unleashed.
Suiton - Suijinchu ("Water Release: Water Formation Pillar")!!!
A colossal pillar of water erupted, far larger than anything she'd used before. It wasn't simply a technique - it was a towering mass of pressure and volu, roaring upward as if an ocean had been forced into the shape of a single spear. In the original tiline, i had used this jutsu to suppress even Uchiha Madara's Fire Release: Great Fire Annihilation. Water naturally countered fire, yes, but only overwhelming output could force such a clash into submission.
And i's output now was in another league.
With Hashirama's cells integrated into her body, her chakra reserves and vitality had surged - stamina, recovery, even raw physical force strengthened to a level that would have sounded absurd in another era.
At the sa ti, Kisa slamd forward, roaring as he unleashed a flood of his own.
Bakusui Shōha ("Exploding Water Shockwave")!!!
Chakra beca a deluge, the battlefield drowning beneath lake-like waves that surged outward and swallowed the burning clone. The water smothered the spread of heat, crushing the flas under sheer volu.
Two layers of defense.
Two oceans of pressure.
The Steam Imp clone detonated again.
BOOM - !!!
Waves burst upward, spray and shock ripping into the air. The force still hit like a battering ram, but now the destruction was contained - converted into violent water surges rather than lethal heat and shrapnel.
Mist shinobi were shoved back by the flooding tides, battered and soaked, but alive.
And then -
It stopped.
No reset. No shrinking. No next cycle.
The Steam Imp clone did not return.
Gengetsu smiled, satisfied, like a man watching a puzzle finally solved. "I see… Amaterasu's inextinguishable flas burned away the oil - and most of the water with it."
His eyes glead with approval. "Jōki Boi can explode endlessly, but it still needs that oil layer to maintain the expansion-and-contraction cycle. Without oil, it can't repeat the loop. No loop… no more explosions."
Then his gaze shifted toward Sasuke, surprise returning in a new form. "Mangekyō Sharingan… and the path of Susanoo. So the Uchiha have joined Kirigakure too?!"
Sasuke nodded once. "Yes. Mizukage-sama is the benefactor of the Uchiha… and my master."
Gengetsu burst into laughter again - this ti pure admiration. "What a man!" he exclaid. "And you - impressive. You awakened the Mangekyō Sharingan, and your Susanoo has already reached this level. Aside from Uchiha Madara, you're the first I've ever seen with such mastery."
He spread his arms slightly, almost theatrical, but there was sincerity beneath it.
"Alright," Gengetsu said, voice bright and calm. "Now you can seal without worry."
His grin softened into sothing strangely peaceful.
"With Chiba in Kirigakure…"
His eyes narrowed with satisfaction.
"I can finally die… without regret!!!!"
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